The Spirit Wanderer
by NailPolishPoison
Summary: Since birth, Okumura Rin could see ghosts. At the tender age of 15 he was made fatherless, Yukio left as the only familly he would accept, and he was plunged neck deep into the world of exorcism... he knows that there is more than Assiah and Gehenna, he knows the truth, but he also knows that nobody would accept it, they would call him mad, so he keeps it hidden from the world.
1. Curse my Curiosity: Cram School Omen

Heya! It's me agaaaaaaaaain! You just can't escape me now can you ;D

Sorry for the sucky summary guys, I had to keep on shortening it and taking out words so that it would fit the silly 'character count' that Fanfiction forces upon us ( curse you FF! ... jokes, I love you really :D ). This is **not **an AU by the way; exorcists and demons are still prowling the streets :P

**NOTE: **I'm not one of those authors who put random author notes halfway through he story, so if you see something in a bracket and you are not sure, it IS part of the story. :) Happy reading x

**Summary: ** Since birth, Okumura Rin could see ghosts. At the tender age of 15 he was made fatherless, Yukio left as the only familly he would accept, and he was plunged neck deep into the world of exorcism... he knows that there is more than Assiah and Gehenna, he knows the truth, but he also knows that nobody would accept it, they would call him mad, so he keeps it hidden from the world.

Welcome to The Spirit Wanderer...

The first thing I noticed: blood.

As I entered my new cram school class for the first time in my life, Mephisto in dog form trotting merrily beside me, I was stunned. So shocked was I that I had nearly slipped up and shown my horror.

The room, the walls, the desks and the chairs, they were coated, dripping, **spewing** blood. It was like a massacre had recently occured, like a scene out of an 18 rated horror movie ( with far too much blood in it for the director to be considered mentally healthy ), to be quite frank it caused an overwhelming nausea within me as my stomach churned unpleasantly. I knew I should have been used to scenes like that but... I couldn't exactly be called sane if I was, could I?

There were eight people in the room already ( excluding Mephisto and me )

The second thing I noticed: body

There were seven living people in the room already ( excluding Mephisto and me )

_Great. Just great. Someone decided to hang themselves here. Simply woderfull. LUCKY me... wow, life must REALLY hate me. I know that I'm the son of Satan and all but, please, Lord have mercy! I know I don't believe in you God but jeez! Just give a guy a frickin' break!_

After internally reciting a silent prayer within my mind, which I knew would go unanswered, I hung my head low and trotted over to the front desk in the middle row. It was the FARTHEST seat away from the hanging corpse as I could get... and TRUST ME, I did NOT want to be anywhere even remotely near that thing. Heck, I didn't even want to be in the same room as it... but I couldn't of blown my cover now could I.

I had to remember to keep up my facade, I couldn't let my horror and utter raw disgust show on my features. No, that would give away my secret now wouldn't it. I couldn't have that, nope, not at all. At a very young age, before even starting school, I had learned to keep my mouth shut about 'abnormal' things. It just wasn't... well... normal. I saw the way some of the people at church looked at me when I mentioned the extra person sitting at the dinner table, or that strange guy with one eye who always just sits in our bathroom. They thought it was a game, 'Rin's imaginary friend again' they all said. Well, that certainly shut me up. It was blatant they never saw what I saw, and hey, I considered them lucky... VERY lucky. Sometimes the things that I could see figured out that I could see them and, boy, that sure as hell did not work out too well.

I KNEW I shouldn't turn around. I KNEW that I would be putting myself in danger if I turned around. I KNEW that I should of just ignored that spirit, that ghost, that WHATEVER that was hanging above one of the desks in the back. But, hey, I was always too curious for my own good.

Slowly, I turned, regretting my foolish action even as I was doing it. It was just so tempting to sneak a peak at the paranormal entity that I was BLESSED with the ability to see... yeah right, blessed my ass. I was cursed.

I kept my expression lazy, like you would expect on a NORMAL person who couldn't see ABNORMAL things in that NORMAL classroom. Instantly I knew that, if I was alone and had an absence of company, my eyes would DEFINENTLY have widened comically. THAT was how much I hated myself and my stupid anticts at that moment.

_Curse my curiosity._

A woman, mid-late 40's, with unnaturally black dyed hair, was hanging by a loose noose around her neck, swaying gently as if it was only seconds since her feet had left a surface. Her head was hung low so I couldn't see her face, her skin pale, splatted with blotches of blue and purple, as if her skin was once a blank canvas until someone painted a masterpiece.

_Masterpiece? Wow, I've gotton a bit psycho..._

Narrowing my eyes slightly and concentrating, I could tell that there were some hand shaped bruises and marks along her wrists, leading all the way up until the elbow. They varied in size, most were large, the size of your average man's, but there were smaller ones too... childlike... or dwarph.

_It's kinda sick that I could think up something even slightly humorus in this situation. Maybe I have really lost my marbles... baka Rin! There's nothing wrong with me! I'm fine, shut up._

She wore an ankle length white dress, it resembled an old-fashioned night gown. Upon further thought, I concluded that it was indeed a night gown. That allowed me to date the body back to the 1600s.

_Wow, she is prehistoric. She could be my great-great-great-great-great-great nanny... that's kinda creepy._

Lowering my gaze, I noticed that she had bare feet and measured up to around 5' 6.

_Tut tut, she's not even wearing slippers! What a tra -_

My inner musings were cut short by a change in the woman. Her head lifted suddenly, her eyes immediately connecting with mine.

_Oh shit._

I spun my head round so quickly that I was half surprised that I didn't get whiplash. My hair splayed in all directions as I stuggled to keep calm and not alert the others in the room to my sudden change in attitude. Sweat matted my brow as I struggled to ward back a potential onset of hyperventilation.

_Once again, CURSE my STUPID and CHILDISH curiosity... damn, I must really hate myself to be constantly putting myself through this..._

I was, once again, interrupted from my thoughts, although this time it was by a far more welcome presence. No trace of the paranormal at all on this being that had kindly pulled my mind from ABNORMAL thoughts, albeit even if it was just for a moment, a moment of normal thoughts and interruptions was considered BLISS in my little universe I called my brain, conscience and sanity.

My thought tracks had been interrupted by Yukio.

For the next few minutes I tried to garner Yukio's attention and focus it on me. I wanted him to clear the room so we could talk face to face. I wanted to talk to him about his keeping his exorcist activities from me... if truth be told, I KNEW his and father's secret for a long time. It wasn't like I snooped around and investigated, it wasn't like I wanted to know the pain they went through trying to protect me from what, at the time, I didn't even believe in.

When I was about 7 or 8, there was a little ghosty, his name was Billy, that kept on bugging me and following me around. He wasn't very nice, he wasn't. No. He was a cruel boy. He was bitter, sour and took every chance he could at making my life a misery. He would initiate fights between me and other people because he knew that I would get in trouble and get dumped with all the blame, he would distract me in class and taunt me and tease me because he knew that I wanted to keep my... '6th sense' a secret, which meant that I couldn't react to him or defend myself against his petty jabs.

Well, one glorious ( _NO day is glorious when you are 'GIFTED' like me ) _morning, I was awoken by having one of my pillows covering my air tracks and effectively suffocating me. What a great omen to start the day with! Strangely enough, when I had cleared my path for breathing ( and recovered from my mild dizzyness, caused by sudden lack of oxygen ), there was no sign of Billy. I was relieved and worried at the same time ( _Is that even possible?! _), I was expecting to see him hover over me in his usual victorial-style attire, scruffy brown hair and bangs sliding over his eyes. So when I noticed his absence, I considered it a gift from the heavens.

It was only later that Billy came back to me. It was that evening, I was getting ready for bed while Yukio and Father had just come back from some kind of outing. I didn't mind it when those two went off together without me, it happened quite often and at regular intervals. When I asked, I was told by one of the church workers that the old-geeser was accompanying Yukio to some sort of extra-curriculum course, so I was in no rush to join them.

Anyway, Billy came to me...

_Putting my comfy pyjama top on over my head, I mentally scoured through my day, trying to figure out the mystery behind the sudden absence of Billy. I stretched one arm up high before suddenly being pushed from behind and slammed into the corner of my bed. I groaned, I knew that I would have a bruise in the morning. Looking up I spotted the one guilty for my fall; low and behold, it was Billy._

_"Go away Billy."_

_"Whaaat? No HELLO, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" His voice was crackly and rough, coming out almost distorted. I winced slightly at the sudden raise in his voice, noting that he had adopted a slight threatening tone. I didn't want any trouble and I definentely didn't want to start any arguments as there were other people in the house and I didn't want them to think I was weird._

_"Okay then, where have you been oh best freind of mine?" My hushed whispers came out slightly more sarcastic then I had intended, but luckly Billy ignored it._

_"I found something exciting out..."_

_I knew that he was drawing it out on purpose and I was not in the mood to play along with his quips. I raised my left eyebrow slightly as a signal for him to continue._

_"Your father and your brother have been lying to you..."_

_I adopted a slight frown, "what do you mean? "_

_"Ahhhh... now I've caught ya attention, aven' I... "_

_I sighed, we weren't getting anywhere and Yukio could have come up at any minute._

_"Get on with it, you know that I don't have much time."_

_"True, truuuuuue."_

_At that moment the door swung open to reveal Yukio standing in all his glory, already ready for bed._

_"Nii-san, what are you doing on the floor?"_

_I quickly picked myself up from the carpeted ground and crawled into my bed. I turned to face the wall as I heard the tell-tale click that was the light switching off. I closed my eyes and listened to the soft sound of rustling sheets that I recognised as Yukio clambering into his own bed. It was then that I felt a supernatural presence close beside me on my bed and I realised that I would not be able to escape from Billy._

_His voice once again resounded around the room. It seemed to come from the very walls themselves but I knew that he was right beside me... ghosts were a strange science after all._

_"Now where was I... "_

_The night went on with Billy drawling out his story of how he had followed Yukio and Father and discovered the interesting world of exorcism. Of course, at the time I didn't believe in demons and exorcists, I thought that Billy was just messing with me on that aspect, but I did believe one thing: Yukio and Father were teaming up behind my back to protect me from something. I assumed it was something like they were training to be police officers or maybe detectives because they wanted to protect me from some bad guys that were targeting me for some unknown reason... it was only on that fatefull night, when I met my true father, that all the peices clicked into my brain... but of course I still had to hide it from Yukio or he would get suspicios about how I already knew that he was teamed up with father._

Finally, after a few minutes of me rudely interrupting the class, Yukio ushered everyone out. It wasn't like I didn't have the patience to wait until class was over to talk to him... I just had a dead woman standing right behind me, she was slightly bent towards me so that her face was lowered RIGHT next to mine. We were so close that our cheeks ( my cheek, hers was more of a bone covered with leathery skin ) were practically touching. I wanted to move out of my chair without looking suspicous... what better way to do that then to pretend that I want to know the truth from Yukio and the 'accidentally' knock the vial of blood on the floor that would summon lower level demons and give me an excuse to cut things down, giving me a chance to secretly exterminate the ghost woman who was currently climbing up my table in a trance-like state, most likely acting out the last scene of her life: the suicide scene.

_Beautifull... right on my desk._

Hey dudes! I hope you like it - i just really wanted to get this idea out.

This fic will be continued but it wont be like a continuous story ( this is hard to explain ). Basically, I will take parts of different ( or same ) episodes and edit them to add in some paranormalllll ( wooooh... spooky )

This fic probably won't be updated regularly or often, just when i get a hit of inspiration ( lucky for you i already have enough ideas for two more chaters ^_^ ). This fic will only be updated more often if it becomes more popular than The HollowHeart, because that is my main priority.

I have no Beta ( I don't want one either ) so sorry about any mistakes, whether grammatical or just spelling errors, I am sorry m( _ _ )m


	2. Sticks and Stones may break my bones

One word: exams. I hope that explains my long absance (sorry, can't remeber how to spell that word :s ). My exams are continuing so there will be more long pauses between chapters; nothing has been abandoned, don't worry :)

I think that my writing style has changed slightly... I'm not sure, but the tense of this chapter is different from the first anyway ( that's kinda obvious :D )

If you are impatient and you want to know what will happen in The HollowHeart but can't be assed to wait for the chapters to come out (i know how this feels so i wont find it offensive) then you can just send me a message and i will tell you how the story's gonna go THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT HAS BEEN ABANDONED! so don't worry :)

Have fun reading. Oh yeah! This chapter's based on the episode where the cram students are being punished in the dorm and have the heavy rocks on their laps - two demons turn up later and it turns out it was a test by the way.

* * *

Sticks and Stones may break my bones...

My heart is beating so loud that I think i may go deaf.

I am struggling to control my breathing, it hurts my lungs. I must appear normal to everyone els. The cram school students... they cannot know how panicked i feel now. At least they're arguing, for if they weren't then they would surely be able to hear my laboured breaths, my sharp gasps; evidence of my discomfort.

I musn't let anyone know of what i can see... even if, by doing so, it hurts me.

I can see a monster.

Ironic really, how I can claim to see a monster when really I am just looking at a little boy, no older than 6 or 7, crying his infantile eyes out. Well, he would be crying his eyes out if he had any. Blood is pouring out of the young boy's sockets where his eyes should be, his hands, in a gesture that speaks of hopelessness, are half raised to his bowed head, almost as if the boy was going to use them to plug the holes in his skull, only to pull them back as a result of the overwhelming pain produced when contact is made.

The boy is wearing a sailor suit, not a cosplay one, but perhaps one that holds an authenticity found in only those clothes worn and made in a victrorian time. This lets me date the boy back to the 1800's. This, and the fact that the boy is gaunt and thin, obviously malnourished and underweight, he must have been through some hard times to have died so young. Perhaps his familly was once rich but then later fell? That would explain the lack of pauper-wear on the boy, his clothes aren't suited to the poor and famished.

In the background I can faintly hear Bon and Kamiki still arguing. I'm not paying attention to them but they are starting to get on my nerves; the boy is trying to say something, I don't think he is harmfull, but I cannot hear what he has to say.

The lack of communication between me and the spirit boy may not be the faul of the other students anyway... blood and a strange yellowish liquid with an ominous, toxic sheen is gurgling out f his mouth, trailing at a snail's pace down his chin and dripping onto the floor. Poor boy, even though he is a spirit, he is obviously still in pain.

I want to save him, I really do, but how? Maybe if I can hear what he has to say? Surely he is trying to send me a message that will allow me to put him at rest... but it is impossible, his gurgles are just nonsensical, incoherent babbles.

Slowly the liquid from the boy's mouth starts to take on a different colour... it slowly turns black.

Darker and darker the boy's pain goes, now having formed a large dark pool on the floor, filling nearly a quatre of the room. Lucky the boy's spirit is at the opposite end of the room from me, he is in the corner across from the door, for if he was any nearer to me, I would surely already be partly submerged in this sickly liquid. That thought alone makes me want to gag.

Suddenly, and without warning, the, now pitch black, thick liquid, starts to shift against itself. The liquid defies physics, it's subtle at first, but then I can see it REALLY start to move.

I hear a faint voice in the background, coming from behind me, but I take no notice.

I concentrate on the black liquid.

"Rin!"

The liquid shifts and scrapes itself into a formation that I can easily recognise; it has shifted itself into words.

As nano seconds race by, the words become more and more identifiable; 'help me'.

'Help me', 'save me', 'please', 'no more', 'just stop it', 'somebody',

"Rin?!"

Endless, countless pleas are spelled out onto the ground, each one putting a dent into my resolve, putting a crack in my calm mask, braeking my play-dough heart.

"RIN!"

I snap my neck around with an adrenalin-boosted speed, my face greeted with the sight of the concerned faces of the other cram school students.

Damn, I zoned out.

Before anyone can say anything, I quickly turn back to where the boy's spirit was. He is gone. So much for saving him.

Turning back to my fellow students, I put a half-fake half-relieved smile on my already-goofy face.

Bon starts, "Rin y-"

CRASH!

A demon cladded out in all it's gory glory flies into the room with an intent to kill.

Time to get into action.

* * *

Sorry it's short guys but it's better than nothing, ne?

Seeee you not so sooooon ;)


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